No recibí el memo

Yesterday, mid-morning, Pro Ciegos decided to have an inservice today beginning at 845am for all of the staff of the Deaf schools in Guatemala City. They told the staff to show up to Santa Lucia, the school for the blind, with sneakers, and sent the students home with notes for their parents saying ¨no school tomorrow¨. And so it was set.

This morning, I set out early for Santa Lucia, as it is located in Zone 10. The people on my second bus suddenly developed a mob mentality (I still do not know why) and I was pushed out of the back door of the bus with dozens of other people. I was able to get on a third bus, but found that I was running late. In order to arrive on time, I decided to run from the Avenida de la Reforma to Santa Lucia.

When I arrived, panting, I greeted the janitor, Don A., who was standing outside the door of the school. In his precious, monotonous low-talking voice he said, ¨the location was changed, the program is at Fray Pedro¨. Fray Pedro is the other school for the deaf in zone 11 (NOT next to zone 10 as a logical person might assume, but rather on the other side of the city. ironically, where I live.)

¨The...what? When did they change the location? They notified everyone else?¨ Apparently, they had. The only other person who didn´t get the memo was Don E, the other janitor, and he hadnt arrived yet because he has low vision and it takes him a long time to commute with his cane. The Director of CECSA had called and left word with the guard of Santa Lucia to instruct us to take a cab for which she would reiburse us.

I decided to call FR to inform her of the situation. ¨Oh hi,¨ she said when she answered the phone, ¨the location was changed, I was going to call you but I ran out of minutes on my cell phone¨ (bear in mind she was standing in a SEA of Pro Ciegos staffers with active cell phones.) ¨When did they inform everyone of the change of location?¨ I asked. ¨around 8, 8:15 this morning¨ she replied.

Am I the only one who finds it absolutely astonishing that over 100 Pro Ciegos staff members on a phone chain can instantaneously re-route without any confusion? And who changes a location 45 minutes before it starts? Don E. finally arrived and the janitors and I set out in search of a taxi. Every time a white vehicle passed, Don E. yelled ¨That white one! Is it a taxi???¨ The first six times, it was not, in fact, a taxi, but the seventh time was the charm.

We arrived at Fray Pedro to see that the activities had not even started. Just our luck? Perhaps. The opening ice breaker was human bingo, in which each person must obtain the signature of a person with a characteristic on the bingo card (i.e. tallest member of the group). People immediately rushed over to me and thrust their cards in my face,requesting my john hancock next to ¨Whitest Skin¨. Awk.ward.

After a relay race and a rousing variation on the Human Knot, we engaged in 2 hours--2 HOURS--of latin dancing. After 120 minutes of non-stop hip girating, fist pumping and salsa steps, we were all ready to drop (not just me! I was pleased to learn that not all Latina women are skilled in the art of reggeton arobics).

The afternoon session involved disscussion and creative activities involving the mission statement and vision statement of the Comite Pro Ciegos. I have to say, I had a blast. A sweaty blast. And it was a great opportunity to bond with the rest of the CECSA staff, as I only have 2 weeks left (dont get me started [sob] that´s another post altogether).

The kicker was when I was waiting at the bus stop and noticed a boy in a Fray Pedro uniform with hearing aids. I started to sign to him, but got no response other than a sheepish grin. ¨Man he´s shy¨ I thought. But cute. Fifteen minutes later I realized that Fray Pedro is an Oral Deaf school and the boy doesnt know sign language. Good one, Hayley.